This weekend has been full of beautiful fall colors – trees with orange and red shades are finally starting to change in the city and there aren’t too many leaves on the ground yet. I found cabbage bouquets at a local farmer’s market yesterday and I wanted to take one home for every room. What a creative decor idea! The last day of the weekend started bright and early, as I was awake at 6:00am to run the RUN 10 FEED 10 10k race at Diversey Harbor. A full race re-cap is coming in my next post!

But first… let’s talk food. After errands and a grocery store trip post-race, I was ready for something fast but delicious for lunch. Chicken salad is one of my favorite easy meals to throw together, especially when it’s made with rotisserie chicken. I’ve been thinking about how to combine mini peppers with chicken salad for awhile now, and today’s lunch was the perfect time to try it. We always have a bag of mini peppers on hand, as K loves to chop them for use in his daily salads. What better way to serve chicken salad than inside a few of these crunchy peppers?

There are many other fun ways to eat chicken salad, as seen on Pinterest – in lettuce wraps, on endive halves, inside wonton cups or tomatoes, and on slices of cucumber. I would also like to thank my sister-in-law of Make the Best of Everything for her inspiration to serve food in new ways – check out this fun post on 20 Edible Dish Ideas for more bright ideas.

This version of chicken salad is made healthier by substituting half of the mayo for greek yogurt. The mini peppers I used happened to be flat on the bottom, but you could also cut them length-wise and enjoy chicken salad boats instead. Please note I devoured whole wheat pita chips with hummus as a side with these tasty salad cups. Carb loading after the race, you see.

Make these cups for a quick lunch or a healthy party appetizer!

Crunchy Chicken Salad Cups
Serves 4, with leftovers.

Ingredients ~
8 mini peppers
1 rotisserie chicken {I only used the white meat, and removed the skin}
1/2 cup dried cherries 
1 celery stalk {chopped}
1/4 yellow onion {chopped}
2 Tablespoons mayo with olive oil
2 Tablespoons 0% plain Greek yogurt
1/2 teaspoon seasoning {I used Paula Deen’s House Seasoning, a mix of black pepper, salt, garlic, and onion powder}

How to ~
*Chop celery and onion and shred the rotisserie chicken.
*Mix the shredded chicken, celery and onion. Add dried cherries, seasoning, mayo and yogurt and mix until combined.
*Wash the mini peppers, and slice off the top. Cut each mini pepper in half.
*Add chicken salad to each pepper cup until it’s full!